"Damp Squib"?

[sluggo]

In a bio of the recently passed Ira Levin:
"'This Perfect Day' (1970), a Huxleyan story of a future controlled by technocrats, was something of a damp squib, but in 1972 he again hit the jackpot with The Stepford Wives."

-Anyone know this expression? There are several Google definitions as well as contextual inference; I just never heard it before and wonder as to its derivation.

What would its opposite be?
('Cuz I rather liked the book)

[Perry]

I believe that a squib is a small firecracker. So a damp squib would be one rendered impotent.

[gailr]

In a bio of the recently passed Ira Levin: "'This Perfect Day' (1970), a Huxleyan story of a future controlled by technocrats, was something of a damp squib,

Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei!
Critics can be such wet blankets.
-gailr

[sluggo]

I believe that a squib is a small firecracker. So a damp squib would be one rendered impotent.

Makes perfect sense as such, thanks Per.
Mayhap it's a UKism- I think the article was British.

Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei!
Critics can be such wet blankets.
-gailr

There's a trip down memory lane
You have a reference copy there, I ween? Such taste!
But needs a better rhyme:

"Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei!
How many Huxleyan stories of a future controlled by technocrats'd you trash today?"
hmmm...

[gailr]

There's a trip down memory lane
You have a reference copy there, I ween? Such taste!
But needs a better rhyme:

"Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei!
How many Huxleyan stories of a future controlled by technocrats'd you trash today?"
hmmm...

Nice rhyming couplet, sluggo.

Wood, Wei, Christ and Marx,
Gave us posts with lovely snarks.

Yes, I have a reference copy, my tattered-from-rereading paperback from high school, where a fellow iconoclast also suggested Level 7. A pity that Push Button Officer X-127 wasn't restricted to 'damp squibs'.

-gailr

CMW&W! makes an interesting epithet, though...

[sluggo]

Nice rhyming couplet, sluggo.

Just wanted a chance to air out the old chestnut contraction technocrats'd.

Marx, Wood, Wei and Christ,
If this thread continues I'll be surprist.

[gailr]

Just wanted a chance to air out the old chestnut contraction technocrats'd.

And who would not? It's not every day one can drop it into a casual conversation.

Marx, Wood, Wei and Christ,
If this thread continues I'll be surprist.

Wei, Christ, Marx and Wood,
This can't keep up although it should.

[sluggo]

Wei, Christ, Marx and Wood,
This can't keep up although it should.

Wood, Wei, Christ and Marx
Thus beget poetic larks

Wei, Christ, Marx and Wood
and surely mine ain't all that good.

[Bailey]

methinks 'tis time to dry the scrib.

mark not-marx,-Christ-the-way Bailey

[gailr]

methinks 'tis time to dry the scrib.

In the context the names were used for the book, it's OK, Bailey. No disrespect is intended here.

Marx, Wood, Wei suffice
To usher in an antichrist.

Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei
Big Brothers must be kept at bay.

-gailr

[Bailey]

no, I was just adding my own perspective.

mark not-quite-as-dumb-as-I-look Bailey

[melissa]

Wood, Wei, Christ and Marx,
Gave us posts with lovely snarks.

This is why I come here.

[Cacasenno]

Damp squib = castagnola bagnata.
I can't use that around New year!


Ok for Marx Wood and Wai
But Christ, who is he, I pray?

[gailr]

Damp squib = castagnola bagnata.
I can't use that around New year!

Babelfish, he is not helping me. [Bagnata = bathed?]
But Castagnola is not clear, even with the Googles.
?

Ok for Marx Wood and Wai
But Christ, who is he, I pray?

Try here.

[Cacasenno]

Damp squib = castagnola bagnata.
I can't use that around New year!

Babelfish, he is not helping me. [Bagnata = bathed?]
But Castagnola is not clear, even with the Googles.
?


Bagnata = wet, damp
Castagnola = firecracker (slangish I guess; botto generic for any forms of firecracker and firework = fuoco artificiale). Castagnole (plural) were also used placed on top of railtracks to warn trains of impending dangers.